The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Questions for Jerry

Just joined having problems with oil in a 1950 chev truck with 216 . Oil distributor valve. Opens too soon will not let oil going to top I think oil blockage is some where , if I pump oil from rocker line back it comes out of the line that supplies oil to the oil pan and not out of the line the oil pump feeds to. If I put a steel plate to cover the oil distributor valve, and plug off the line to the oil filter, then I get some oil going to the top .

The oil distributor is there to protect the lower end of the engine. Until there's at least 15 PSI to the main and cam bearings, the oil to the rocker arms is blocked off. Badly worn main and/or cam bearings will bleed off pressure and make the distributor stay closed, at least at idle speed. What weight oil are you running? The water-thin modern oils such as 10W-something or 5W low number oils are absolutely the wrong thing to use in a spray-oiler engine. They never "thicken up" to the high numbers- - - -they just lubricate like a heavier oil when they get hot. Try an oil change to 15W-40 or maybe 20W50 and see if the rockers get lubed. There doesn't need to be a massive amount of oil flow at the rockers- - - -a small ooze at idle from the weep holes in the rocker arms is plenty- - - -as the engine gets up to cruise RPM the oil flow from the pump, and to the rocker arms will increase noticeably. Try turning the idle speed screw to get 1K RPM or a little more and check for oil flow at the rocker arms. You could also check for flow by disconnecting the oil line at the rocker shaft connector, fast idle the engine, and check for oil flow there. The best thing you can do to increase oil flow to the top end is adjust the main bearing clearance down to .0015" or so. The less oil the main bearings use, the more will be available to go to the top end. It sounds like you might be trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Good luck!
Jerry